Tag Archives: Going To Graceland

One more day, and he would have been touring again. But as it happened, Elvis Presley’s lifestyle caught up with sooner than that. Over the last few years, he had become seriously overweight, and also addicted to drugs.

By the time of his death, Presley was sick enough that he was having difficulty staying upright throughout his concerts. His friends and crew were doing their best to conceal his difficulties, but things had been slipping for some time.

Elvis was buried in Memphis, next to his mother’s grave, two days after his death – although even today, thirty years on, sightings of the King of Rock and Roll continue (he’d be 74 years old today, so it’s just plausible that he might have lived to this point).

Referenced in:

Dead Elvis – Doug Anthony All Stars
Going to Graceland – The Dead Milkmen
Rock And Roll Hall Of Death — Mitch Benn And The Distractions

When Elvis died in 1977, he left most of his fortune to his daughter Lisa-Marie, who was only 9 at the time. The assets, including Graceland, were held in trust for her, with his father Vernon as the executor. Upon Vernon’s death in 1979, this responsibility passed to Priscilla Presley.

Taxes and other bills were eating into the inheritance, and in order to keep it going, Priscilla decided to convert Graceland into a tourist attraction. It rapidly became one of the most popular destinations in the United States, and the income it generated saved the Presley fortune. Graceland was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, and declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006.